Don't Come Home Without Your Brother

Barack Obama wrote a book, "Dreams from My Father" (1995). It became a best seller. He went on to become president of the most powerful nation on Earth. Still, I wonder that his father, Barack Obama, Sr., might not be disappointed.

Besides a son that is living in the White House, Mr Obama, Sr. has a son, George, who lives in a thatched hut in Kenya. From all accounts, George has never been to the United States, much less visited his brother on Pennsylvania Avenue. This is as much a shortcoming on Michelle's as Barack's. After all, men have been know to lack in social graces. Where Barack has come up short, should not Michelle have said to him, "We need to have George over for dinner?"

When asked about this, George said, "My brother (Barack) has many responsibilities. He is trying to take care of the world. In that way, he is taking care of me, too." Sounds like a decent, well-spoken man to me. Who wouldn't invite such a brother into his home?

When we were young, my parents would issue this warning as we left out of the door:  "Don't come home without your brother."

I have not read "Dream from My Father", but I imagine Mr. Obama, Sr.'s dreams are similar to my father's. Those dreams start with the family - always - and that is where they return.

Barack Obama, for all his achievements seems to lose sight of the notion that the dreams of his father are likely the dreams of everyman:  That his children look out for one another; that his son be his brother's keeper.